March 2021

Nikita Mazepin had a disastrous start to life as an F1 driver, with him qualifying at the back of the grid (though he started in P19 due to Sebastian Vettel getting a penalty) and only navigating a couple of corners before crashing his car on Sunday. The incident, which was entirely self-inflicted and didn’t involve another driver, forced Mazepin to retire from his debut race in the pinnacle of motorsport just a matter of seconds after it had got underway. Speaking after the race, Haas team principal Guenther Steiner said Mazepin “was pretty beat up” but is looking forward to what he’s hoping to be a better weekend in Imola. “He was pretty beat up. I just said to him to keep his head up and keep on going,” Steiner said. “For sure, it is not ideal what happened but it happened so he beats himself up pretty badly. “He is ready to go again so we pushed him up again but otherwise Mick did a good job. At least we got half of it achieved. 50 percent there,” he added. Steiner was asked if Mazepin’s mistakes earlier in the weekend led to the young Russian being over-motivated and pushing too hard at the start to make up ground. “He pushed a little bit harder but I think that’s his character more than anything else, just to try to find the limit and sometimes you go over it,” Steiner replied. “I’m not really surprised about that because he tries to do the best he can and obviously, our car is not easy to drive. “I think he is one of these guys where he just tries very hard.”

Valtteri Bottas’ post-race debrief would have been an interesting watch based on a little interaction between him and Toto Wolff in the Bahrain pit lane. The Finn could only play a very minor role in the season opener as team-mate Sir Lewis Hamilton and Red Bull rival Max Verstappen stole the show in their tense battle for the win. While Bottas was off the pace all weekend, he was not helped by a rare slow stop by his pit crew and was particularly irked by the race strategy that was given to him. Bottas, who did say earlier this year that he was going to be more demanding and selfish in his quest for World Championship glory, said in the Bahrain paddock that the race plan was “too defensive” and “too passive”. And, it appears, he was wasting little time in questioning it with his team boss, who cut the conversation off during the Mercedes celebrations in front of the garage. Wolff, meanwhile, has defended Bottas’ race strategy, saying there was very little option to go down an alternative route with him. “I think there wasn’t any strategy on the table,” said Wolff. “Because we tried to undercut also with Valtteri that I think would change race for him or make his race not. “The outcome we wouldn’t wish for was that he lost a position at the start of the race and he kind of couldn’t recover the gap to the two guys in front. “The pit stop was there to undercut Max, and I think we would probably have been successful, but we had a problem with the right front wheel gun. “And then I don’t know what other strategy we could have run. The one stop was clearly not possible. “The medium wouldn’t have made it to the end, the hard in the middle stage was running out of performance. There was no other option available. “I totally understand the frustration in the car when you have limited information and say ‘I think we could have done something else.’” Bottas’ frustration was also picked up on by the Sky Sports F1 presenting team, with ex-driver Paul Di Resta saying the Finn’s open criticism will put “pressure” on Mercedes.

AlphaTauri boss Franz Tost believes that their rivals Aston Martin do not have a good car on their hands in the AMR21. Pre-season testing gave Aston Martin reason for concern as the iconic brand made its return to Formula 1. The team completed the second-lowest number of laps, while new recruit Sebastian Vettel spent a chunk of time in the garage thanks to several reliability issues. The RP20 of 2020 was controversially based very closely on the 2019 Mercedes, but for this season that philosophy seems to be hurting them. The works Mercedes team appear to have been impacted quite severely by the new aerodynamic regulations, and the AMR21 also looked quite the handful at the Bahrain season-opener. Vettel said he “did not feel at home” in the car as he suffered Q1 elimination in Bahrain and later shunted Esteban Ocon in the race. The four-time World Champion was also forced to start from the back of the grid after not observing double yellow flags in Q1. And from his observations, Tost, Vettel’s former boss at Toro Rosso, was not impressed with the Aston Martin car. “Theory is one thing, reality is another,” Tost told Sport1’s AvD Motor und Sport Magazin. “In reality, the car is not that good, it is very unstable at the rear end.” But on a more positive note, Tost thinks Aston Martin have a driver in Vettel who is very capable of taking the team forward. “With his experience, he can bring a team forward. He knows how to win races and world championships,” he explained.

Formula 1 and the FIA have confirmed there were 12 positive cases of Covid-19 from testing across the Bahrain Grand Prix weekend. In order to return to racing last year, F1 introduced a strict Covid testing regime, with all personnel attending a grand prix event required to return a negative test before being granted admission into the paddock. In a change from 2020, when figures released also included offsite results, now only the results of those tested onsite are included in the latest numbers. This is due to the way testing has changed across Europe with lateral flows and private testing. A statement said: “The FIA and Formula 1 can today confirm that at the 2021 FIA Formula 1 Bahrain Grand Prix, between Monday 22nd March and Sunday 28th March, 8,150 tests for Covid-19 were performed on drivers, teams and personnel. “Of these, 12 people tested positive. The FIA and Formula 1 are providing this aggregated information from each grand prix for the purposes of competition integrity and transparency.”

Emanuele Pirro, who was the race steward for the season-opening F1 2021 race in Bahrain discusses how he would have penalized Max Verstappen had the Dutchman not given the position back to Lewis Hamilton. During the final few laps, Red Bull’s Verstappen managed to overtake Mercedes’ Hamilton around the outside of turn 4 for the race lead. Unfortunately, the Dutchman had all four wheels of his Red Bull RB16B off the race track prompting the race officials to inform him to give the position back. “He would have got a maximum 5-second penalty,” Pirro told Corriere dello Sport. “You cannot overtake where you go over the track limits. Vertappen did so, although he did not do it on purpose, he simply went a bit straight/wide. At that moment Masi warned Red Bull and advised Verstappen to give back his position. “A race official will never force anything, because he may not do that he may only suggest it. Verstappen gave back his position and we did not have to deal with the case specifically. Pirro also discusses how the race director Michael Masi, also warned Hamilton and Mercedes regarding the Englishman’s exit at turn 4 during the race. “Hamilton went over the track limits a little too often, creating a repeated advantage,” Pirro explained. “So Masi, the only one with the authority to talk to the teams, called Mercedes to warn them that if Hamilton did it more often he would get the white black flag. That could end up giving him a penalty. “He stopped immediately and that was that as far as Hamilton was concerned.” Pirro also explained that the teams and drivers were warned about their approach to the turn with several drivers having their lap times deleted over the course of the weekend. “It was clear both in practice and in qualifying that whoever went off track in Turn 4 would lose his lap time. This also happened several times to several drivers,” Pirro continued. “Masi warned the teams that if one went over the track limits several times or benefited from it, the commissioners would assess the situation.”

Formula 1 fans were treated to a great, down-to-the-wire race in Bahrain this weekend. But for Spain’s most successful F1 driver, it ended all too early. Fernando Alonso, celebrating his return to the sport after a two year hiatus, had to retire following a mechanical issue that was caused by a very unlikely source. “After the second stop, a sandwich wrap paper got stuck inside the rear brake duct of Fernando’s car,” Marcin Budkowski, Alpine’s executive director, told Motorsport. “This led to high temperatures and caused some damage to the brake system, so we retired him for safety reasons. It was a very unlucky first race for Fernando considering how strong he looked.” Indeed, after a strong qualifying performance in which the two-time world champion finished ninth, seven places ahead of his teammate, Esteban Ocon, the early end to Alonso’s race was a disappointment. With better luck, Alonso might have earned some points in his first race back to the series. But he was positive about his return to the sport. “Firstly, it was great to be back racing in Formula 1,” said the Spaniard. “The start was fun, we gained some places and I had some enjoyable battles with old colleagues. However, it was disappointing to not see the chequered flag in the end.” Ocon, meanwhile, ended up in 13th, failing to earn any points. His race, though, was hurt after he was crashed into by Aston Martin’s Sebastian Vettel. Alonso will look to score his first points of the season at the second race in Italy at the legendary Imola Circuit on April 18.

Max Verstappen has outlined the list of failings that his Red Bull team made in Bahrain and issued a warning that the team must “try to do better” as it bids to win the title this year. Verstappen went into the season-opener wearing the favourite tag but ended up second best to reigning champion Lewis Hamilton. The Dutch driver started from pole but spent the early laps complaining of a differential issue and ended the day admitting the team must work harder on its strategy, flexibility and tyre planning. “Last year we would have been super-happy with this result and now we are disappointed,” he said. “There are a lot of positives but also things we have to improve. “I don’t know what was going on [early in the race] but I had more wheel-slip on one side, on the rear, so that’s of course not what you want. I managed to drive around the issue a bit but we’ll have to look into that. “Strategy-wise, we’ll have to analyse what we could have done better. But also we didn’t have the tyres like they had, so we didn’t really have a lot of flexibility in the strategy. We could have done better in choosing our tyres during practice.” Verstappen led the early stages but stayed out longer than Hamilton in his first stint then dropped behind the Mercedes after his first stop and had to play catch-up for the rest of the race. He added: “With these cars, I think the last three years, it is very important to have track position and we gave that up today. Of course, it is still a very long season. So… yeah… we just have to get on with it and try to do better.”

Seven-time world champion Lewis Hamilton began his quest to win a record-breaking eighth Formula 1 world title in perfect fashion after beating Max Verstappen to a thrilling victory at the Bahrain Grand Prix. The seven-time world champion had trailed Verstappen by almost 0.4s in qualifying but was able to overturn the deficit into a 96th career win partly thanks to an ingenious strategy call from his Mercedes team. Hamilton kept Verstappen honest throughout the first stint and was able to leapfrog the Dutchman in the first stint when Mercedes pulled off a successful undercut on Lap 13 by pitting Hamilton early and moving him on to a two-stopper. The Briton led until Lap 28 when he pitted for a second time to take on another new set of Hards, before Red Bull responded by stopping Verstappen for a second time on Lap 39, pulling off a stunning sub-two-second pit stop. From there, Verstappen was able to capitalise on his fresher tyres as he relentlessly hunted down Hamilton, who made what looked to be a critical error when he locked up and ran wide at Turn 10 with just four laps to go, allowing Verstappen to get within DRS range. Verstappen thought he had made the race-winning move on the next lap when he brilliantly swept around the outside of the Mercedes driver at Turn 4, only to run wide off the track. Facing the prospect of penalty, Verstappen was forced to give the position back to Hamilton on the run to Turn 11, with the reigning world champion remarkably holding on despite being on tyres that were 10 laps older than the Red Bull driver to take a sensational win by just 0.745s. Behind the duelling leaders, Valtteri Bottas was a distant third to complete the podium after switching to a three-stop strategy when a slow second stop ruined his chances of a victory that never looked likely.

Sebastian Vettel has been handed a five-place grid penalty after being investigated for allegedly ignoring yellow flags at the end of the first period of qualifying for the Bahrain Grand Prix. The punishment means Vettel will make his Aston Martin debut from last on the grid after initially qualifying 18th after being held up by yellow flags during the first period of qualifying. Post-qualifying the stewards initially investigated potential yellow-flag infringements at turn eight after Carlos Sainz almost ground to a halt in his Ferrari. But Vettel was cleared, along with Aston Martin team-mate Lance Stroll, Williams’ George Russell and Alpine’s Esteban Ocon. But later on Saturday evening, the stewards announced Vettel alone would also be investigated for a potential second yellow-flag infringement after Nikita Mazepin spun on the entry to turn one shortly prior to Sainz’s incident. After delaying the hearing until early afternoon local time [late morning UK], it has been determined that Vettel was at fault. A stewards statement read: “Car nine [Mazepin] spun at turn one in the last moments of Q1 bringing out a double yellow flag in the marshalling sector. “Bottas, Vettel, Perez and Russell approached the scene and drove past Mazepin. Bottas, was immediately instructed by his team to abort his lap in accordance with the Race Director’s Event Notes (Point 7.1). “Perez and Russell had received the chequered flag, and were instructed to slow, with Russell receiving the additional information that it had been a double yellow sector. “Vettel did not abandon his lap. He explained to the stewards that he saw the smoke ahead of him, but was unsure if it was a lock-up or a stopped car until he was quite close to the car and the smoke was lifting. “The stewards observed that he had already passed the signal panel when it illuminated as he approached the scene, and that the marshals in that turn had not yet reacted with a yellow flag. “Nevertheless, Vettel was approaching a car that was stopped sideways on the track and by the rule this would necessitate a double yellow flag. “During the drivers’ briefing, the race director emphasised that the flag code must be rigorously enforced. “The Stewards consider that the requirement to abandon the lap during practice and qualifying, both in the Code and in the race director’s notes was instituted to disincentivise the drivers from any type of management of their speeds approaching an incident, with a view to maybe setting a lap time, when the requirement is that they should be able to completely stop when approaching such an incident. “In this case, it was clear that the driver slowed slightly approaching the incident, but continued trying to set a meaningful lap time. “In this case, the driver would have received a warning on his dash and the team should have been able to see that the sector had been a double yellow and could have advised the driver as other teams did. “While the argument that the driver was already inside the sector when it went double yellow evokes sympathy, the stewards feel it is important to note that he was approaching an incident visible ahead of him. “Further, the car ahead, in the same position, was instructed to abandon the lap, as is intended by the race director’s notes. “The stewards, therefore, order the usual penalty in this case, a drop of five grid positions.” Vettel has also had three penalty points applied to his licence, which are his first in the relevant last 12-month period.